By Benjamin Kail
masslive.com
BOSTON — More than five years ago, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Thomas Clardy was killed at the age of 44 after an impaired driver swerved across three lanes and struck him during a routine traffic stop on the turnpike.
The driver, David Njuguna, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter two years ago. But police and prosecutors had no legal framework to charge Njuguna in connection to the marijuana found in his system — a lingering injustice to this day, according to Clardy’s family, Gov. Charlie Baker and other public safety leaders still pressing for a bill that would let law enforcement treat marijuana like alcohol and other drugs that negatively impact drivers.
“Our lives were forever changed on that day,” Reisa Clardy said during a news conference in the Worcester courthouse building. “Our six children lost their hero. The emotional, mental and physical impact from the loss of my husband has impacted us in ways that no one should ever have to endure.”
Baker announced the re-filing of legislation — first introduced almost three years ago — that would equalize marijuana with alcohol in driving impaired cases, a move Baker says is long overdue since the state legalized recreational marijuana in 2016.
Now dubbed the Trooper Thomas Clardy law, the bill would recognize drug recognition experts under state law and allow them to testify in court as expert witnesses on the impacts of marijuana on driving. The bill also authorizes courts to take judicial notice that ingesting THC impairs motorists, and it would bolster law enforcement drug testing tools “including from a widely recognized scientifically reliable field sobriety test,” Baker added.
“The threat of impaired drivers is still with us,” Baker told reporters. “This legislation aims to address that threat. Unfortunately our road safety laws have not caught up to the current public safety landscape with respect to impaired driving.”
The governor thanked Clardy’s family for their advocacy. He described the 11-year trooper and Marine Corps veteran as a “dedicated member of our law enforcement community,” a loving husband, father and friend to community members in Hudson.
Reisa Clardy said that even though the family will always feel an emptiness without her husband, implementing the law “will provide measures that will improve roadway safety and prevent another senseless tragedy — another family torn apart by the loss of a loved one.”
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The updates in the law stem from recommendations by a legislature-backed special commission of the state’s Cannabis Control Commission, Baker said. In addition to Reisa and other family members, Baker made the announcement alongside Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Secretary of the nExecutive Office of Public Safety and Security Terrence Reidy, and State Police Colonel Christopher Mason.
“Talking to families after a crash is one of the hardest things that we have to do in our jobs,” Early said. “We always ask the family at the conclusion of a case, ‘What do you want?’ What they want we can’t give them. They want their loved one back. It’s like comparing apples and oranges when you compare it to a jail sentence. This bill will be another tool in the toolbox — another way that we can help family’s like Trooper Clardy’s find some sense of justice and closure.”
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